Capacitive pressure sensors are well known in the prior art. A typical pressure sensor includes a fixed element with a rigid, planar conductive surface that forms one plate of a substantially parallel plate capacitor. A displacable (relative to the fixed element) conductive member, such as a metal diaphragm, or a plated non-conductive member, such as a metalized ceramic diaphragm, forms the other plate of the capacitor.
The diaphragm is edge-supported so that a central portion is substantially parallel to and opposite the fixed plate. Because the sensor generally has the form of a parallel plate capacitor, the characteristic capacitance C of the sensor may be approximated by the equation: C=(ε*A)/d, where epsilon (ε) is the permittivity of the material between the parallel plates, A is the surface area of the parallel plate, and d represents the gap between the plates. It is noted that the characteristic capacitance is inversely proportional to the gap between a central portion of the diaphragm and the conductive surface of the fixed element. In order to permit a pressure differential to develop across the diaphragm, the region on one side of the diaphragm is typically sealed from the region on the opposite side.
The diaphragm elasticity is selected so that pressure differentials across the diaphragm in a particular range of the interest cause displacements of the central portion of the diaphragm. These pressure differential-induced displacements result in corresponding variations in the gap, d, between the two capacitor plates, and thus in capacitance variations produced by the sensor capacitor. For relatively high sensitivity, such sensors require large changes of capacitance in response to relatively small gap changes.
In one prior art approach, the sensor capacitor, which is formed by the fixed conductive surface and the diaphragm, is electrically coupled through conductors to an oscillator circuit. The oscillator circuit typically includes an inductor that forms a tank circuit with the sensor capacitor. This LC tank circuit provides a frequency reference for the oscillator circuit; the output frequency of which is a direct function of the resonant frequency of the tank circuit. The resonant frequency of the tank circuit is in turn a direct function of the inductance L of the inductor and the capacitance C of the sensor capacitor. It is well known to those in the art that the resonant frequency (ω0) of a simple LC tank circuit is given by
      ω    0    =            1              LC              .  
As long as the values of the inductor and the capacitor both remain fixed, the output frequency of the oscillator circuit remains constant. However, since the capacitance of the sensor capacitor varies as a function of the pressure applied to the diaphragm, the output frequency of the oscillator circuit also varies as a direct function of the applied pressure. Such a configuration produces a signal whose frequency is indicative of the pressure applied to the remote sensor.
One disadvantage to capacitive pressure sensors with this configuration is the low resonant frequency at which the oscillator circuit operates. Another disadvantage to the capacitive pressure sensors with this configuration is that the manufacture of the sensor capacitor and the oscillator circuit is often complex.
Yet another disadvantage to the prior art capacitive pressure sensors is that the size of the resulting sensor capacitor and the oscillator circuit is often bulky and space inefficient. Consequently, these prior art capacitive pressure sensors may not meet the stringent size and space requirements of portable or other compact applications.
Based on the foregoing, there remains a need for an apparatus and method for detecting a target environmental variable (TEV) that overcomes the disadvantages set forth previously.